APC Condemns Plot To Force Amaechi To Resign

Posted by African Examiner Ayo Balogun, Featured, Latest Headlines Monday, October 21st, 2013

Ayo Balogun, Lagos

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned reported plot to abduct, blackmail and force Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State to resign from office.

Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State

The party said it was the last desperate act of those who were bent on getting rid of the governor at all costs.

In a statement issued by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said that the plot, which was exposed by the Rivers Peoples Forum, should be taken very seriously, against the background of a similar occurrence in the past and the outcry by Gov. Amaechi that his life was in danger.

”Anyone who thinks this alarm by the Rivers Peoples Forum is outlandish should remember what happened to then Anambra State

Governor Chris Ngige, who was abducted and rough handled in 2003 in what is undoubtedly the most egregious violation of democratic institutions in our country’s history.

”The instigators and perpetrators of the crisis in Rivers are keenly aware that they are running out of options. Their impeachment plan has been foiled by the takeover of the legislative functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly’s functions by the National Assembly, while their plan to declare a state of emergency in the state has also failed, against the lack of support for such act by the National Assembly.

”This is the reason for this last desperate act by an increasingly-desperate Presidency, which may not exclude a final solution. We are therefore, for the umpteenth time, calling on civil society and human rights organizations, opinion leaders and indeed all lovers of democracy and believers in constitutional rule to intervene to stop the runaway culture of impunity in Rivers State,” it said

APC said it was instructive that a day after the Rivers Peoples Forum exposed the plot against Gov. Amaechi, the so-called chair of the PDP in Rivers, Felix Obuah, set out to prepare the grounds for the devilish plot when he called a press conference to deliver a harangue against Gov. Amaechi whom he accused of ”insulting and dragging the names of President GoodLuck and the First Lady, Dame (Dr) Patience Jonathan to the mud. ‘There can be no better confirmation of the evil plot than this.”

It also warned that the madness in Rivers State, which is being carried out under the watch of the Presidency, which has made the state’s Police Commissioner the de facto Governor with a clear instruction to neutralize the elected Governor, should not be seen as an isolated incident, but as a part of a grand plot and a test run for 2015.

”As we have said before, the crisis in Rivers is being deliberately orchestrated to test the waters ahead of the 2015 elections, with the belief that if the perpetrators get away with the massive impunity in the state, it can then be extended to other states before 2015 to ensure that the polls will be everything but free, fair and transparent, and also to satisfy the yearnings of a President who is obsessed with winning re-election.

”The daylight rape of democracy in Delta state on Oct. 12th by those who prevented elections from holding, only to announce concocted results, is also part of this plot. The new strategy is to use security agencies, especially the police and the military, to undermine democracy. We have not seen the last of these dangerous games, hence the need for all to be vigilant,” APC said.